Association of American Colleges and Universities, January 2001

Excerpts from Quality Counts 2001:

An Education Week/Pew Charitable Trusts report on education in the 50 states, Education Week 20:17 (January 11, 2001)

prepared by Ross Miller, AAC&U

Quality Counts 2001suggests... efforts (to raise academic standards)... are beginning to pay off where it counts: in the classroom. Test scores are rising in some states, many teachers report the expectations in their schools are climbing, and educators are slowly changing the curriculum to reflect state standards.

Quality Counts found state tests are overshadowing the standards they were designed to measure and could be encouraging undesirable practices in schools. Some tests do not adequately reflect the standards or provide a rich enough picture of student learning. And many states may be rushing to hold students and schools accountable for results without providing the essential support.

When asked to compare the current picture with the situation three years earlier:

• Almost eight in 10 teachers said the curriculum was "somewhat" or "a lot" more demanding of students.
• More than six in 10 said the expectations for what students would learn were "somewhat" or "a lot" higher.
• Nearly seven in 10 said teachers in their schools were collaborating more.
• More than six in 10 said students were writing more; nearly half reported students were reading more.

Responses to the teacher survey suggest state tests may be looming too large in classrooms and encouraging undesirable practices.

• Nearly seven in 10 teachers said instruction stresses state tests "far" or "somewhat" too much.
• Sixty-six percent said state tests were forcing them to concentrate too much on what's tested to the detriment of other important topics.
• About 29 percent reported using either state practice tests or commercial test-preparation materials a "great deal" to ready students for state exams, while one-third did not use them at all.
• Nearly half reported spending "a great deal" of time preparing their students in test-taking skills.

States need to give students more varied ways to show what they know and can do. Forty-nine states include multiple-choice questions on their exams, 38 include short-answer items, and 46 ask students to compose essays as part of writing tests. But only seven require students to write essays or engage in performance tasks in subjects other than English. Two states use portfolios, compilations of students' classroom work. (Kentucky and Vermont use portfolios–collections of student work that are graded, in part, by state officials.)

Of the 18 states that require students to pass tests to earn a diploma, 15 mandate that students receive additional help if they fail the tests, but only nine pay for such assistance.

Fewer than half the teachers surveyed said they had "plenty" of access to curriculum guides or textbooks and other materials that match state standards. Fewer than half also reported having "plenty" of access to training in the use of state standards or assessments. A majority reported having had five hours or less of training in such topics in the past year.

Forty states report having tests aligned with their standards in English at the elementary, middle, and high school levels; 34 report having such tests in mathematics. But Quality Counts summarizes previously unpublished analyses by Achieve, a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit group, that indicate the match between state standards and tests is not close enough.... "Everyone always says that their tests are aligned with their standards," remarks Lauren B. Resnick, the director of the Learning, research, and development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, which worked with Achieve on the alignment studies. "Well, enough! We now know that they're not."

Across the nation, evidence is mounting that the drive for high academic expectations, combined with good teaching and a dose of accountability, has pushed some schools with seemingly insurmountable problems—such as high student-mobility and teenage-pregnancy rates—to the top of the academic heap. ...those schools have a number of traits in common:

• high expectations and standards-focused instruction;
• comprehensive testing systems to monitor student achievement;
• extra instruction and attention devoted to low-performing students;
• professional development focused on teaching the academic standards; and
• parent involvement that emphasizes standards and achievement.

In Maryland, where... exams ask students to apply their knowledge to solve problems that often span multiple subjects, 7^th grade teacher Meredeth Haley says the state tests have been "a good thing."... The skills demanded on the exams "are the skills students are going to need, " she says, such as communicating their thoughts in writing , graphing and interpreting data, and synthesizing information. But few states have followed Maryland's lead. Research also suggests that high quality, on-going assessments designed by classroom teachers are linked with gains in student learning.

Maryland has delayed requiring new high school exit tests for graduation until the state can ensure the supports for students are in place.

State tests rarely provide the feedback needed for teachers and students to learn from their mistakes. Only four states let teachers know how each student performed on every multiple-choice item. Only nine send teachers their own students' scored work on essay questions.

Some states judge schools by test-score gains over time. Others hold all schools to the same, absolute standard. In Texas, minority and low-income students in each school must meet the same performance levels as their other classmates for the school to be deemed "acceptable." ...Indiana is the only state to lower the expectations for schools on the basis of their students' poverty levels and IQ test scores.